The red coral is comparatively limited,
but the polypes which form the white coral are widely scattered. There
are some of them which remain single, or which give rise to only small
accumulations; and the skeletons of these, as they die, accumulate upon
the bottom of the sea, but they do not come to much; they are washed
about and do not adhere together, but become mixed up with the mud of
the sea. But there are certain parts of the world in which the coral
polypes which live and grow are of a kind which remain, adhere
together, and form great masses. They differ from the ordinary polypes
just in the same way as those plants which form a peat-bog or
meadow-turf differ from ordinary plants. They have a habit of growing
together in masses in the same place; they are what we call
"gregarious" things; and the consequence of this is, that as they die
and leave their skeletons, those skeletons form a considerable solid
aggregation at the bottom of the sea, and other polypes perch upon
them, and begin building upon them, and so by degrees a great mass is
formed.
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